this is from::: 18 september 2012::

I am sorry that this email is a bit late. Yesterday was Respect the Elderly day and everyone had a day off, so we decided to go out and work and take pday today. So ya. About the coming home thing. I got a letter that asked me whether i wanted my mission to end 12 Febraury or 26 March. I picked the 12 February, so that is the set date that i will be able to come home. But aobut the other stuff. If you did come to see me on my last sunday, i think it would be cool. But for the 2 days, it really is only monday, but even then i could probably be with you guys as my companion becasue dad has the priesthood. But if not, you will be in Tokyo. There is always something to do.  You will be able to find everything fine when you get here. Everything is in English and people can speak englsih here too. They are super nice.

 

It sounds like you had a very full week. I am happy for you. I just told dad that when the week is full, time goes by so fast. I cant believe that it is 18 September already. Time has gone by so fast. I come home in like less than 5 months. That is so weird. Anyway, I hope that everything works out with kendi and what not. I am sure she will love her new car. I am excited for her. Oh, before i forget. Next Monday for me (Sunday for you) I will be calling home on Skpye at 9 AM. President Budge gave me permission to call Bug one last time before he enters the MTC. So i will be attending his farewell party as well. haaha. Just be expecting a call from me on your Sunday night. I am way stoked. This will be the last time i will see bug for almost 2 years. I wont meet him in person for almost 4 years. Weird.  But ya. Thats way interesting aobut the trimming and stuff. it made me laugh that no one has done it since i left. Taliing about Kelly and nephews, what could you find out about Hunters baptism? I really wnat to make it. I know that i could make it too if they did it in February. You will just have to let me know. I sent kellbell a lettter 2 weeks ago so she should knwo.

 

SO my week was pretty dang good. We had lessons on and off pretty much all week. We also had a Mini-Zone conference with interviews. It was good. We had a day to just do strait finding. It was hard and because of that, i fasted on Sunday taht i would be able to enjoi days like that and that i would be able to go hard my last 5 months. I thought it was a good fast. Friday at the Mini zone thing, i gave a training on Hope. It was super hard. Hope, Charity, and Faith are the hardest to give trainings on because they are so easy. People are also very concered about those. So they choose wheter to listen or not. It is difficult but the missionaries gave me a good response so i think i did good. haah. I also had a interview with Pres. Budge. I wont lie, it was different than Pres. Albrecht. It just didnt feel the same. It felt like he ahd to do it and thats why he was doing it. But as he gets older, that will change. I only have 1 or 2 more anyway, so i think i will be able to handle it. He is a good man. This past sunday, we sang nearer my God to thee in Sacrament. It was really good.  Elder Aoyagi of the seventy was at church. That is 2 weeks in a row where a GA was a church. It was pretty neat. I like Elder Yamashita better but it was still good. I had a lesson with Sugaya, a gator who is really close to being baptized. We finished teaching him everything and told him he could be baptized next week if he wanted. He accepteed. Yesterday i was on splits but they had a interveiw/lesson withhim and he asked if i could baptize him. I am way stoked. I have been so blessed on my misson. It is so incredible to look back on all my many blessings. I will never forget them. This upcoming sunday we are having 3 baptisms in the ward. 1 of our gators, and 2 of the other elders are getting baptized. Talk about a White Sunday. It will prove to be a fantastic day. I am excited. I love being busy. I absolutely love it. Our church as of now dont have  a font, so we will use a blow-up pool. That will be a neat memory. Please continue to pray for him. I am fasting for him right now because his family is having problems with money which could cause a problem with tithing. But all should be well. Please pray for my other gators. Soko is still having problems with his fiancee. HE is accepteing everything though. He really wants to be baptize but his fiancee is against it. So please pray for that. Yoshy, needs a job. He loves everything as well. He suffers a bit from depression and gets down but it can be easily fixed when we are withhim. Ryutaro is going good too. He loved the commandments. Please pray that he will be able to continue to see teh difference between good and evil and then wnat to make a good choice and be baptized. Masaki is new but he needs a answer taht this church is true. He has had the opputunity to be baptized 5 times into another church but has refused it 5 times becasue it didnt feel right. He really wants to know what is true. Please pray that he will do good.

 

Can you also pray for my past converts, they seem to be having trouble. Bro. Suzuki found some stuff in the bible he doesnt agree with and moved and no one knows where he is at. He hasnt attended church in a while too. Please pray that he can come back. Sis. Suzuki is getting ruled by Bro Suzuki. He doesnt want her to have anything to do with the church but she loves it. Please pray that she can come back. Panda is unsure of his future and doenst know what is going on. He went to China and came back all confuseed. Please pray that he will be able to realize that this is happiness and gives him purpose. All in all Please pray that they all will come back to church. Thanks so much.

 

I love you so much. I am so sprised at how fast the time is going. Ill be home n no time so there is no need to cry. I am so excited to see you. I really am but it is very sad to think that it is coming to an end. I love my mission so much and i have appreciated every single second of it. It has changed me and my life. I am eternally grateful and in debt to God for it.  I love Japan and everything about it here. I will certainly miss it. Thank you so much for your prayers and everything you have done for me. I hope that you have a great week. I know i will. I am jsut always happy. I dont really have hard times anymore. You cant with this gospel. I love you mom. I am excited to talk with you guys next week. I have called home so much on skype this year, i am a blessed perseon. Be safe.

12 september 2012::

Thanks for the email. I am going to take some time and write a bit aobut my thoughts and stuff on when i finish. It is really sad that my mission is coming to a close. I have loved it here. I really dont want to leave, but i know sooner or later i have too. I have gotten my "Dead Letter" this past week and i have decided that i will go home in February. I know that Hunter will be baptized some tiem in February and i really want to see taht. I also know Kendi will have an opera that i could probably see. SO February works best for everyone and that is waht i am going to do. About Japan, I think it would be best if we had 1 hotel the entire time we are here. We mainly travel by trains here in Tokyo and since i am a ZL in Tokyo, i know them pretty dang well. Now saying that, You are probably going to want to get a hotel that is in more of the middle of Tokyo. Even though tokyo is relativly small it takes time to get to places. I live just on the out skirt of Tokyo and it takes me about 50 min to get to the center by train. So if you pick somewhere like the East side, it could take awhile to get to some places. So the best bet is somewhere in the Middle of Tokyo. Here is another thought i had. I was thinking you guys can come on to my last Sunday in Japan so you can see me talk in Sacrament and stuff. That would be February 10th. Here is the trick. I am 1 day a head of you. SO you would have to be in Japan on February 9th or Dads birthday. This was just a thought, so let me know. But i know that it is super expensive here and i was thinking if you were on Sunday, we could leave earlier in the week. maybe on the 14th or 15th. Here is an example, if we left on the 14th in Japan at 12:00, we would get back on the 14th in America at 11:00. It is crazy on how everything works. Just let me know what you think. As for what we would do, I am right with you, i want to introduce you to people that i have baptized, the some of the people in Yamate ward in Yokohama, some cool places in Tokyo, and introduce to my previos comps. So it is a good thing that i havent transferd that much. But there is maily 2 places i want to take you to. Let me know. I am very excited aobut seeing you all again and this whole thing. You will love it here.

 

I am doing very well by the way. This week was very interesting. Well i mean yesterday was very interesting. On Tuesday we found out that our golden investigators, Soko, girlfriend is against him being baptized. She acutally said taht if did, they were through. I was devistated. SO i fasted for him. It proved very well too. On saturday we went to a Sri Lankan festival in central Tokyo. It would of been fun but i had a differnt expirence. A guy came up to us and starting talking to us. Well he was christian but fell away. It was way interesting to see him and all his arquments. But the interesting thing was just noticing how mucht the Adversary has control on him. On the LDS website, Elder Bednar has 3 great videos that talk aobut the Light of Christ. It was just way cool to see that every thing Elder Bednar talks about, was true. It definatley built up my testimony.  I dont like talking to Americans that much here. It seems all the ones who fall away come here because religion is so messed up, they feel they can runaway here. WRONG!!! Anyways, Yesterday is the real interesting part. We had Elder Yamashita of the 70 in the ward and he spoke every period. It was amazing. During sunday skool, he talked aobut eternal marriage and it was amazing. After that Soko came up to us and said that everything that we were teaching him made sense and that he needs to conitnue learning. It was Amazing. Our prayers and fast were answered. I told you it proved to be very well. In 3rd period, Elder Yamashita continued talking about the roles of parents inthe hom and what not. Well in church we had 4 investigators. The sisters in our ward also had a woman just walk in and participate this is where it gets interesting.

 

This girl was dressed liek a prostitute. She had very long blonde hair, with a mini skirt and a cut off shirt. That kinda of dress is normal though. She was in her 30's i think.  I said hi and welcomed her to church. She was very natural with everything so i thought she was a member that hadnt been to church in awhile. Well i went up and talked to her more after the sacrament and found out she wasnt a member and she had been to church once. After church, we had a linger longer. I was BRTing (Building Relationships of Trust) and getting to know this person. But i think i might have done that a bit to much. We were talking and i asked where she was from, Nagyoya. I asked how long she had been here in tokyo, about 2 years was the reply. I asked if she was going back to Nagyoya, she said ya. Asked her age and she didnt reply. Then it turnded to me. How long have i been here, 1.5 years. When will i go back to america, 5 months. Age, 20. People cant believe that. Remember, this is all after church where we just talked about families and marriage. This is where it went downhill. She looked at me and told me that i needed to stay. I said i want to but my visa will end and i have to go. She said no, my dad works for the government, he can help. She continued, LETS MAKE BABIES. Then you will have to stay. We will be married and just make lots and lots of babies and we can live in Nagyoya. It was super funny but really awkward. I tried to change the subject and get her talking to the sisters. I told her that one of the sisters was super cool and introduced her. That sister then told her(gator) how cool i was and what not. (poor choice of words on her part) The gator then replied, "I know, we are going to make babies and have  a huge family, and just make babies". It was funny. But way awkward. They started talking and i just walked away. I have never in my life had some one tell me that they want to make babies with me. Very interesting day. She is there investigator now and it will be hard avoiding her. We shall see. I am sure you will hear more.

 

All my other gators are doing super well. They are progressing and really want baptism. So keep praying for them. Dont worry aobut me getteing "Trunky" I told you. I commited myself to Burn out than fade away. I am goin to work hard until i go home. The thought of home doesnt get me stressed, the thought of leaving and finishing though gets me sad. I have absoluely loved it here in Japan. I love everyhting. The thought of "not missionary life' is pretty scary too. I dont know what it is like. I cant remember not being a missioanry.  But i am going to be solid until i come home.
 

I cant believe that Bug is going on his mission too. I have asked my president if i can skype home before he leaves so i can talk with him one last time. I really hope that he lets me. If not, i wont see bug for almost 4 years. That is so crazy to me. I love Bug so much. He is going to love his mission. It is a great place. Time really does go by fast. Before you know it, we will all be together as one big family again. Time just goes by so fast.

 

I love you mom. I am grateful for everything that you do for me. I was going to tell you that i need some garments. All mine are yellow. I can buy shirts here, but the bottoms that i wear and like, the distributive center doesnt sell. I like the silky ones like Kamas. If you could send some, i would be super happy. All mine are very gross and disgusting and i need new ones. My size is Medium. I love you so much. I hope that you ahve a great week. I will be praying for you always. I am very excited about the upcoming months. It is so exciting. Ill talk with you next week. I love you.

04 september 2012::

Thanks so much for your great email. I love hearing about everything that happens there in AZ. I know i dont make to much of a comment of it anymore but i really love waht is going on. Thanks for adding it all.

 

When i get home, i think i want to do the diet that you and dad were doing just a couple of months ago. I also want to put on like 20 lbs of muscle. I would look so good if i could do that. Man it gets me excited just thinking aobut htat. The other day, i stayed the night at the honbu and i ran on a treadmile for the 1st time in 1.5 years. I did way good. I ran 2 miles in under 13 min. I was doing a steady 10mph for 1 mile. It was awesome. I think if i was to just run the mile i could get it in under 6 minutes. I am in way good shape right now. haha

 

My week was way good. We were super busy almost everyday. My companion is pretty chill. He reminds me alot of Jared. He does his own thing and doesnt really care. He knows what he is doing and does waht works and waht is right. He is super good with leaders too. I quess that is a blessing that he is using greatly. He can speak japanese and english perfectly becasue he is half. SO he can be amazing at what he does cuz he knows what is going on 24/7. It si just my job not to care that he can do that and support him and do what i can to help. Thats has been my resolve. I really liked what i said last week. I think i am the person that if the job gets done, i wont need to do it again. For example, if he teaches about baptism or joseph smith, i wont need to teach aobut htat becasue he already did. I just need to testify or teach something new. I look back from a year ago. I am blown away with the grwoth that i have seen. 1 year ago, i hated bwearing my testimony in japanese because i thought it sucked. But now, it is almost the only thing that i do becasue it is what brings the spirit and hleps the investigator. I love bearing my testimony. My comp is also amazing at using the Book of Mormon. Since he is half, he has an american thought but he translate that into japanese. Once again, a great talent that he is using. Most japanese people are shy to talk to japanese people because it isnt culture but because my comp is half american, he uses wht he gots. I really respect that. I really want to be able to use the book of mormon liek he was but i fear that i wont be able to these 2 years because my japanese is limited. But i am grateful he is. I have made it my goal though to try to use the book of mormon everyday. It is something every missionary should do but since we ride bikes and what not, it is really hard to hand thme out. But i am going to do it. We are promised that those who read from the pages fo the bom,will ahve a stronger desire to share it. I really want taht. I am now on my 7th time reading the bom while on my mish. I am trying to finish before sept. 9th like bishop asked. I have 100 pages to go. But i really am trying hard to share the BoM more.

 

 I learned a great thing from the BoM this week. I told you last week that i am trying to be more humble and care more about what God thinks than what anyone else thinks. I have learned that having a BIGGER VISION of things is super helpful. These 2 years are way important and i love them, but i will continue on and i think about after my mission. I found a great scripture. It is in Helaman 5:8. My favorite part is:. . .do these things to lay up for yourselves a treasure in heaven, yea, which is eternal. . ."  I love that. My kangaekata is if i do missionary work or go and talk to people, i will have tons of treasures in heaven. It motivates me alot and cancels out what others think becasue only God can give me these treasures. It is something great thtat i have learned. I love the Book of Mormon so much. モルモン書に感謝します。毎日私はモルモン書を読める機会があります。その機会は本当の祝福だと思います。モルモン書がなければ私はモルモン教にならな かったかもしれませんと思います。I am sorry about that. That was easier for me to write than in english.

 

My gators are doing well. Nara loves to hike and we are going to try to get him to take us up MT. FUJI. We shall see. I am excited. Soko is doing amazing. He really wants to get baptized. I love him alot. Sugaya is oding amazing too. He will be baptized too. Please pray for all my gators they need them. tokuni Yoshy and Ryutaro. They need the motivation to learn and see that the church is a good thing and will bless there lives. I love them both and am happy for tehm.

 

Like i said before i had tons of meetings this week. One of them was ZL Councel. We just talked aobut hte mission. The fun part was at lunch. I got voted to arm-wrestled pres. Budge. I held him in a stale mate for about 2 minutes but them he pulled my arm towards his, stretching my arm out, making me loose. I didnt care too much but it was way fun looking at his face seeing how much he was struggling. I was not even struggling but he was. Sis. Budge got some pics. I want to see them. But it was fun.

 

I love you mom. I am so excited to see you in just 5 months. YOu are going to love Japan os much. It is a great place. I am so excited for you to meet and see the areas where i served and overcame challenges and stuff like that. It will be a blast from the past for me and you will love it. I am love you. Have a great week. I am will be waiting to hear from ya. Give everybody else my love too.